"Every aspect of the Hammered Dulcimer and its playing techniques is covered in this comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand text. A masterful teacher, Madeline MacNeil exceeds the expectations of a beginner's book, providing a firm foundation for the development of a total musician while maintaining an engaging, informal tone throughout. With detailed discussions on Dulcimer layout, hammers, tuning, and stands plus extensive performance notes on every tune, this book is a valuable asset to the beginning through intermediate player. From Oh Suzanna to Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring , Madeline shows the novice Dulcimer player how to ""map your way through"" a new piece of music, finding clear, musical directions through what at first must seem like a maze of strings. All tunes are in standard notation. The book is illustrated with photos as well as quaint woodcuts, engravings, and pen and ink drawings. The companion 85-minute video and audio contains essential basic information on playing the Hammered Dulcimer--such as tuning, major and minor keys, duplicated notes, repeated notes, modulations, walking bass lines, chromatic notes, drone harmony, back-up chords, interval harmony, and more! Also contains Madeline MacNeil 's Hammered Dulcimer solos on 25 tunes. Audio and video downloads are available online."